For Those I Love Carving The Stone
For Those I Love's Carving The Stone reads like a city atlas rendered in song, where memory, grief and civic anger guide the map. Critics agree the record earns its urgency through plainspoken narration and bold production choices, and the consensus suggests this is a vital, life-affirming follow-up that balances folk intimacy with electronic pulse. Across three professional reviews the album achieved an 86.67/100 consensus score, with reviewers repeatedly pointing to its best songs as proof of its power.
Reviewers consistently single out “Mirror”, “No Scheme” and “Civic” (alongside “This Is Not The Place I Belong” and “Of The Sorrows”) as the standout tracks on Carving The Stone. Critics praise “Mirror” for its furious clarity and techno snap, note “No Scheme” for marrying social critique to strange joy, and highlight “Civic” for its glistening piano that slows time. Themes that recur across reviews include hope and life-affirmation amid urban decline, working-class struggle, gentrification, male mental health and the tension between love of home and the impulse to leave. The record's fusion of folk storytelling and electronic textures gives those themes both tenderness and bite.
While some notes register blunt political ache and elegy, others emphasize moments of melodic consolation, making the critical picture broadly positive and nuanced. Across three professional reviews critics agree the album's storytelling and production render small portraits into durable songs, suggesting Carving The Stone is worth attention both for its standout tracks and its urgent, humane perspective. Read on for the full reviews and track-by-track analysis.
Critics' Top Tracks
The standout songs that made critics take notice
Mirror
3 mentions
"If I’m going to bleed, then make me bleed with a blade that I can see,"— New Musical Express (NME)
Civic
2 mentions
"On ‘Civic’, glistening piano melodies and shimmering cymbals power reminiscent memories of past joy"— Clash Music
Of The Sorrows
2 mentions
"He focuses that dissonance in ‘Of The Sorrows’, shifting between images of debris and rowan trees up to the closing refrain: “I’ll never leave / I have to leave.”"— New Musical Express (NME)
If I’m going to bleed, then make me bleed with a blade that I can see,
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
Carving The Stone
No Quiet
No Scheme
The Ox / The Afters
Civic
Mirror
This Is Not The Place I Belong
Of The Sorrows
I Came Back To See The Stone Had Moved
What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 3 critics who reviewed this album
Critic's Take
In his disarmingly direct voice, For Those I Love makes Carving The Stone feel like a map of a city that refuses simple answers, and the best songs - “This Is Not The Place I Belong” and “Mirror” - show why. Balfe’s spoken-word clarity and stylish beatmaking render small portraits into hard, humane snapshots, so when “This Is Not The Place I Belong” staggers between pride and resignation, and “Mirror” snaps with fury, you hear the album’s heart. The record’s musical shapeshifts - from “No Quiet”’s mid-tempo groove to “Mirror”’s thumping techno - underline why these tracks stand out as the best on Carving The Stone.
Key Points
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The best song is 'This Is Not The Place I Belong' because it crystallises the album’s tension between pride and the impulse to leave.
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The album’s core strengths are Balfe’s precise spoken-word delivery, vivid city portraits, and inventive fusion of folk elements with electronic production.
Themes
Critic's Take
For Those I Love remains defiantly political and painfully personal on Carving The Stone, where the best songs - notably “No Scheme” and “Mirror” - splice furious social critique with dance-floor energy. Rachel Aroesti's voice here is measured and elegiac, praising how “No Scheme” chronicles lives lived above their means while “Mirror” rages at nationalist hypocrisy, making them the album's clearest highlights. The record trades direct bereavement for a bruised, civic grief, and those two tracks cut deepest because they marry brutal observation to bursts of strange joy. This is an album where meaning outstrips prettiness, and the best tracks are the ones that refuse consolation.
Key Points
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No Scheme is the album's best track because it pairs vivid social observation with energetic rave production.
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The album's core strength is its focused social commentary set against bursts of electronic joy.
Critic's Take
For Those I Love's Carving The Stone finds David Balfe carving tender monuments from grief, and the best songs - notably “Carving The Stone” and “Civic” - feel like small miracles of storytelling and melody. Broyd's prose is exacting and clear, noting how the title track pairs trip-hop basslines and ambient dread with Balfe's vivid storytelling, while “Civic” offers glistening piano that slows time. The review highlights “No Scheme” as a flash of anger and “Mirror” as one of the album's most haunting moments, mapping the record's concern with time, loss and urban life. Overall, the critic presents the album as honest, politically charged and likely to stand the test of time, making the case for these as the best tracks on Carving The Stone.
Key Points
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The title track is best for its vivid storytelling and intense, matched production.
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The album's core strengths are its honest portrayal of grief, time, and working-class Dublin through precise production and lyricism.